§25 Paul’s Style of Ministry and Its Motivation (1 Cor. 9:19–23)
In verses 19–23 Paul describes the style of his ministry and its motivation. This segment of Paul’s correspondence is challenging; it is clear at one level but sufficiently cryptic so as to invite a variety of understandings. The range of interpretations that has been suggested by commentators is remarkable, moving from an understanding of Paul as being totally selfless—perhaps in a psychologically unhealthy manner indicative of a loss of identity—to the contention that Paul was an opportunist in his dealings with potential converts. Careful reading of the text, however, indicates that such extreme interpretations are stereotyped, falling short of full comprehension of the subtlety of Paul’s methods of mission and ministry. Although some interpreters think that the statements in these verses suggest inconsistency in Paul’s patterns of behavior in conducting Christian missions, in fact one learns that for Paul all concerns were secondary in comparison with his all-consuming concern to be an accomplished agent of the propagation of the gospel.
9:19 / Paul reiterates his freedom and declares that while he is free from all, nevertheless he enslaved himself to all. The NIV translates these declarations with the words Though I am free … I make myself a slave to everyone; but more literally, Paul writes, “For being free … I enslaved myself to all.” The opening of the line (“for”) shows that Paul is offering a further explanation for his practice of foregoing his rights or freedom on behalf of others. Moreover, he says, “I made myself a slave” or “I enslaved myself,” referring to the past stance he had taken in doing missions, not to a current and renewing practice as the tense of the verb (“I make”) suggests in the NIV. Being free, having rights, Paul laid his rights aside in order to win as many as possible. Paul states that effective evangelization of others is more important than claiming, possessing, and preserving his own rights. The point of consistency in Paul’s behavior was that he always put doing God’s mission ahead of everything else.
9:20–21 / Paul reports that he varied his personal behavior depending upon his audience. Was this duplicitous? Was he a hypocrite? Certainly not if when he altered his behavior, he acknowledged it as openly and as freely as he does in these verses. There is no evidence in Paul’s explanation that he did anything other than act in such a way as to better serve others by honoring their preferences and practices. In relation to Jews who were under the law Paul took on their law-observant patterns of living, although he himself was not under the law. Likewise, in relation to those not having the law he lived as they did; yet, he pauses at this point to explain that even when he was not being law-observant, he was not free from God’s law because he lived under Christ’s law. Paul does not elaborate his understanding of the law of Christ at this point, although from his subsequent discussion in chapter 13 one may suppose that Paul is talking about selfless love. Again, in a balanced set of statements (so as to win those under the law … so as to win those not having the law) Paul says overtly that he varied his behavior in order to win both law-observant Jews and those outside the law. Doing the mission to which God commissioned him and relating to all persons with as few unnecessary complications as possible—“putting up with anything rather than hindering the gospel of Christ” (9:12b)—was Paul’s primary goal as he sought to make converts to the gospel.
9:22 / Paul relates the pattern of his ministry to the situation that existed in Corinth. There, some persons whose religious scruples precluded their eating idol meat were regarded as (and perhaps called) the weak. Paul explains how he behaved toward such persons in keeping with his selfless method of mission, and by implication he calls for those who were not weak to do the same. Paul declares that he sought to become all things to all people in all ways so that he might serve as God’s agent in all possible circumstances in order to save some.
9:23 / As Paul continues, in a concise statement he shows that the power of the gospel presides over him as he does God’s work. Paul says he served the gospel (I do all this for the sake of the gospel) and sought to participate or to share in its effective working (its blessings). The language Paul uses casts him in the role of a partner or a shareholder, so that one sees that the gospel is the senior partner in a partnership. Thus, the gospel is not relativized to worldly social conditions that are no more than contemporary social structures and sensibilities; rather, the apostle himself becomes relativized in order to preserve the integrity of the gospel. The outcome of this deliberate operation was the gospel’s power at work blessing—endowing and transforming—the lives of those to whom and among whom Paul worked.
9:19 / Paul literally writes, “For being free from all, to all I enslave myself in order that I may gain the more.” Compare this declaration with 9:1; note here that Paul is freed from (Gk. ek) all, but he worked as a slave to all (Gk. pasin). The prepositional force of the language indicates the paradoxical truth of Christian freedom. P. Richardson and P. W. Gooch (“Accommodation Ethics,” TynB 29 [1978], pp. 89–142) examine the ethical practice of accommodation in antiquity and in the life of the ancient church to expand the appreciation of readers for Paul’s attitude and the way his practice would have been understood by his contemporaries.
Moreover, when Paul writes that he sought to win as many as possible, his choice of words is noteworthy. The verb “to win” carries the sense of “to gain” or “to win over”; the phrase translated “as many as possible” more literally reads “the greater part” (Gk. tous pleionas) and reveals the positive disposition of Paul’s work. He is not passively taking whatever results ensue from his efforts; he is actively striving to gain the greatest number possible.
9:20–21 / In a seminal study that explores the complexity of Paul’s statements and efforts, G. Bornkamm (“The Missionary Stance of Paul in 1 Corinthians and in Acts,” in Studies in Luke-Acts [L. E. Keck and J. L. Martyn, eds.; Nashville: Abingdon, 1966], pp. 194–207) refers to “the life-situation in which the gospel is to accomplish its purpose dialectically, liberating here and binding there” (p. 196). He notes that Paul’s “stance is rooted in the gospel and consequently—although the term is not used here—in the love which seeks not its own but the welfare of the other” (p. 197); and he summarizes Paul’s method: “he calls on each to renounce for the sake of the other the use of his own exousia” (p. 203). More recently, D. A. Carson (“Pauline Inconsistency: Reflections on 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 and Galatians 2:11–14,” Chm 100 [1986], pp. 6–45) offers a vigorous defense against the charge that Paul was inconsistent in his attitude and actions; rather, he asserts, there were definite limits to his principle of accommodation.
Moreover, focusing on the striking nature of Paul’s flexibility in his ministry, which often is misconstrued as inconsistency, H. Conzelmann (1 Corinthians, pp. 160–61) observes that despite the neat form of Paul’s rhetoric in these verses, “He is a Jew. To the Gentiles he must become a Gentile. The problem is not how he can live in Jewish fashion, but how he can live in Gentile fashion. Once again this lies not in his own arbitrary choice, but in his commission. He is free not in an abstract sense, but as an apostle.” Somewhat similarly, K. V. Neller (“1 Corinthians 9:19–23: A Model for Those Who Seek to Win Souls,” ResQ 29 [1987], pp. 129–42) relates Paul’s taking on both Jewish and Gentile lifestyles as his “becoming weak” for the sake of others.
The phrase under Christ’s law is ennomos Christou in Gk. and connotes being “subject to the law of Christ,” although Paul offers no exposition of the phrase. Cf. Gal. 6:2, where Paul uses nomos Christou in reference to the entity of “Christ’s law,” as distinct from the idea of the state or status of being “under Christ’s law.”
9:22 / Orr and Walther (1 Corinthians, p. 240) suggest that it is “intriguing” to compare this verse with 2 Cor. 10:10, in which Paul quotes his detractors, who say “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
Indeed, the last phrase so that by all possible means I might save some is ambiguous and may be read “so that ‘at any rate’ I might save some,” although given the positive connotation of “the greater part” (NIV: “as many as possible”) in v. 19, Paul is not likely indifferent as to the results of his execution of God’s mission. In either case, however, Paul does not mean to suggest that he himself saves others, for he clearly and consistently argues throughout his epistles that only God saves! Thus, Paul speaks here of himself as God’s agent for salvation as God works through his efforts. Cf. J. Lambrecht, “Universalism in 1 Cor 8:1–11:1,” Greg 77 (1996), pp. 333–39.
9:23 / At the end of this verse Paul writes in a purpose clause to state his motive for conducting his mission as he did: “in order that I may share [the gospel’s] blessings.” The manner of expression in the statement is concise, but in his choice of words Paul indicates that sharing in the blessings of the gospel is “participating in its furtherance” per se (Gk. hina sygkoinōnos autou genōmai), or as Fee (Epistle, p. 432) phrases it, “for the sake of the progress of the gospel.”